244 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. Ko. 921 



judge from analogy, we might expect the Tor- 

 tugas representative of the genus to be iden- 

 tical with the eastern Atlantic and Mediter- 

 ranean species. But Dr. Mayer has studied 

 both in life, and the differences between them, 

 particularly the presence of lateral tentacular 

 filaments in ochracea, are too important to be 

 considered individual variations. 



The section dealing with the Lobatse de- 

 serves special notice because of the excellent 

 accounts of Bolinopsis vitrea Mnemiopsis mc- 

 cradyi, M. gardeni and Ocyropsis crystal- 

 Una, the earlier descriptions of which were 

 unsatisfactory. These two species of Mnemi- 

 opsis are closely allied to the well-known M. 

 leidyi, but the differences are constant, though 

 slight. Unfortunately, the status of the other 

 West Indian Ocyropsis, 0. maculata Rang, is 

 still doubtful, as Dr. Mayer never saw a speci- 

 men, and the same is true of Lesueria hyhop- 

 tera A. Agassiz, which he suspects is " only a 

 Bolina infundibulum with its oral lobes torn 

 off, and the edges healed over." 



Under the Beroidffi Dr. Mayer recognizes 

 only one genus, Beroe, believing that Pandora 

 is a young stage. On this he differs from 

 Moser, and from the writer. Probably the 

 last word on this point is yet to be spoken. 

 Two species of Beroe are listed from our 

 coast, cucumis and ovata, the latter including 

 clarMi and shaTcspeari, and, I believe, cor- 

 rectly. The figure of the adult ovata is wel- 

 come, because many of the records of this 

 species in the past have rested on insufficient 

 evidence. B. forshalii is not included, as it 

 has never been taken in American waters. 

 But judging from its wide distribution in 

 warm regions, it may be expected on our 

 southern coast. Finally there is a brief ac- 

 count of the remarkable Greenland Platyctenid 

 Tgalfiella tristoma, condensed from Morten- 

 sen's preliminary description. His final paper 

 has appeared in Vol. 5 of the Danish Ingolf 

 Expedition. 



Students will find in this book a convenient 

 manual for a group, the previous literature 

 of which is scattered and largely inaccessible. 



Henry B. Bioelow 



Evolution in the Past. By Henry R. Knipe, 

 F.L.S., with Illustrations by Miss Alice B. 

 Woodward and Ernest Bucknall. Lon- 

 don, Herbert & Daniel. 1912. Pp. xvi + 

 242, 4 text figures and 56 plates. 4to. 

 A few years ago the author published a pro- 

 fusely illustrated work entitled " From Neb- 

 ula to Man " in which in metrical form he 

 gave a sketch of the gradual development of 

 our earth from a nebular mass and of the evo- 

 lution of living forms upon the globe. The 

 difficulty of forcing the jaw-torturing nomen- 

 clature of the paleontologist and zoologist to 

 adapt itself to the requirements of smoothly 

 running blank verse revealed itself in the au- 

 thor's epic, and it is with a certain sense of 

 relief that we turn from the earlier work to 

 the present, in which in plain prose he 

 brings together and outlines the gradual un- 

 folding through successive geologic periods of 

 the story of evolution. 



The author has evidently read widely and 

 familiarized himself with the latest results of 

 scientific research in the domain of paleontol- 

 ogy. His statements as to the different geo- 

 logic periods and the forms of life which 

 characterized them are in accord with the 

 most advanced teaching of the present. The 

 style of the book is popular, so far as it is 

 possible to malte any subject popular which 

 deals with words of Greek origin, which are 

 only in current use among specialists and 

 students. The paleontologist, who is forced 

 to frame names for newly discovered forms of 

 animal life which existed in a past more or 

 less remote, is at a disadvantage when writing 

 of these things when compared with the man 

 who has to deal with recent forms of life, 

 which are known all over the globe by vernac- 

 ular names. A man who writes about ele- 

 phants, tigers, bears, and wolves, who dis- 

 courses of thrushes and nightingales, who 

 speaks of crocodiles and sharks, or bugs and 

 snails, is comprehended even by children; but 

 the man who writes about trilobites, ichthyo- 

 saurs, diplodocuses, doedicurus and pliopithe- 

 cus is apt to be regarded with breathless 

 amazement by the uninitiated. An amusing il- 

 lustration of this occurred recently when the 



